FIRE, whose mission is to “sustain individual rights at America’s colleges and universities,” has released its annual report on free speech rights on college campuses. According to FIRE , “FIRE found that while the percentage of public campuses that unconstitutionally restrict student speech dropped from 77 percent to 71 percent, the percentage of private campuses that similarly restrict freedom of speech has risen by 3 points from 67 to 70 percent.”
The Charlottesville Daily Progress reports on a speech controversy regarding the right to protest in front of the office of a member of Congress. According to the article, protesters used to protest near U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello’s office. When a neighboring business owner complained that the protesters were hurting her business, the police required them to move to a nearby sidewalk. John W. Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute has asked the Representative to move his office. The Representative has offered to make a variety of other accommodations. Given that Rep. Perriello was not the person who required the protesters to move, it does not seem that there is any claim that he violated the First Amendment.
The First Amendment Center reports on a district court judge’s dismissal of a defamation lawsuit against the Dixie Chicks. The court held that there was insufficient evidence of actual malice on the part of the Dixie Chicks for the lawsuit to proceed. The article also discusses some other pending defamation cases.
Inside Higher Education discusses a number of recent cases in which courts have been figuring out how to apply the Supreme Court’s decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos to faculty speech. In Garcetti, the Court held if an employee’s speech is part of his or her official duties, there is no First Amendment claim if he or she is punished for that speech. There has been some question about how to apply this rule to faculty speech, because a broad reading might encompass all of a faculty member’s academic work.
Adam Thierer of Tech Liberation Front has an interesting if snarky blog post on an FCC workshop on net neutrality. Let’s just say he was unimpressed.